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Activity Diagram node no longer allow lines to be drawn

  • September 28, 2023
  • 7 replies
  • 110 views

Charlie J
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The UML State/Activity Diagram components seem to have change and now you no longer get the "red dot" that allows you to draw lines.  This makes quickly drawing out an activity such a PITA.

Impacted components:

- Start
- End
- Branch/Merge
- Final Flow

I've been a paying lucid charts user for almost 10 years now and pretty disappointed to see how this software has suffered from the "Microsoft Word Syndrome" (where software for simple use cases continues to add more and more features at the sake of usability).

Best answer by Emma D

Hi @giogura! Sometimes this can happen if you are very zoomed out or if your shapes are very small, as the UML branch/merge, start and end shapes are. Could you try zooming in or making the affected shapes larger to see if the red line connection dots appear?

Comments

Addie
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  • September 28, 2023

Hi Charlie

Thanks for posting in the community! Are these the red dots you're referring to? If you select the shape the red dots will appear to assist you with drawing lines from one shape to another. 

If you're not seeing this on your end could please try opening your document in an incognito window to see if the issue persists? Additionally could you test to see if you're experiencing this in all documents or just one? Thanks for your help and patience!


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  • December 16, 2023

I have the same issue. I have the same issue with incognito and both Safari and Chrome browser. Image below shows that I dont get blue dots to extend the line.

 

 


Leianne C
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  • Lucid support team
  • December 18, 2023

Hi @giogura, thank you for continuing this post! It sounds like line connections may be disabled in your document. Could you please navigate to File> Document Settings to confirm if the following option is toggled “On in your document? 
 

If the issue persists, could you please let me know what shape you are using in the screenshot you’ve shared? This will help me take a closer look. Thank you! 


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  • December 19, 2023

Hello @Leianne C 

 

Thanks for getting back to me. I checked the setting. It seems to be enabled:

 

 

I get this issue on UMLs: branch/merge, start and end shapes. It works perfectly on other shapes though like UMLs State shape. 

 

Thanks,


Emma D
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  • Lucid support team
  • Answer
  • December 21, 2023

Hi @giogura! Sometimes this can happen if you are very zoomed out or if your shapes are very small, as the UML branch/merge, start and end shapes are. Could you try zooming in or making the affected shapes larger to see if the red line connection dots appear?


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  • December 21, 2023

Hello Emma,

 

Thanks a lot. Looks like that was the cause. For Branch/Merge shape it only works when you have at least 100% zoom.

 

Though I must say that when working with large diagrams, usually it is difficult to use 100% zoom. It would be great, if these forms worked on smaller zoom as well.

 


Emma D
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  • Lucid support team
  • December 22, 2023

@giogura I’m glad to hear that worked for you! Another option would be to increase the size of the affected shapes. I do agree that it would be clearer if the red dots appeared for standard sized shapes at the default zoom level though, so I have reported this behaviour internally for our product team’s consideration.